Wednesday, September 14, 2011

oh, look what you've done. you've made a fool of everyone

years after i first suggested people read the hunger games, it suddenly seems that everyone i know has taken it upon themselves to read it. and then mention how it sucks. all i have to say to them is, "well, duh."

the movie for it is coming out soon, and it seems like the vast majority of the young adult reading population can only read a book when there is a movie deal in the works. i guess so that their imagination doesn't have to tire itself out for long thinking up images and scenes without the help of hollywood? anyway, for whatever reason, the series has been blown into twilightesque popularity, which is why i guess most people have decided to read it right now. because if something is that popular, it must be good, right? wrong. so very, very wrong.

if you read the books when they first came out, you would be reading them with the expectation of getting an entertaining book written for twelve year olds. mistakes would be more readily overlooked. the story could be enjoyed while ignoring the writing style, because, hey, it's a book for little kids that is not being touted as the next great american novel or anything even remotely close. which, incidentally is a pretty accurate description of the book. 

don't get me wrong, i loved the series. but at the same time, there were a bunch of typos that jumped out at me. there were way too many times when the author took the easy way out and had the main character unconscious somewhere when major plot points were happening so that they could be covered in some brief bullet points when she wakes up. this is going completely again the rule to "show, don't tell" and while i could make the argument that she was giving us the story as a sixteen year old girl whose had her life turned upside down might get it, she still does it way too many times. there are some parts where your logic should stay safe in your pocket and others where the characters were just too stupid/dense to believe. but overall, i enjoyed the story, liked the characters, and thought it was a good series. 

because i read it before it got hyped up.

now, it is being referred to as the best book ever to be written. it is elevated to a level of literature where it really has no business being. do i think that it shouldn't be a popular book series? no. people can like whatever they want to, and it does have a good story. what i do think is that people need to understand that just because you and a bunch of your friends like something, it is not the greatest thing ever to come to earth. take it off its pedestal and get over yourselves. if you read it now, no matter how much you say that general hype doesn't affect you, it does. even if it's just a little subconscious nudge in the back of your mind, your expectations are probably too high for the book. all you will get is disappointed. 

the series is being called the next twilight and while its fans will rant and rave about how inaccurate this description is, i think it's spot on. no, the stories are not the same, but that's not what i'm talking about. they are both series that might have been enjoyed before they were hyped up to the greatest books ever written - a claim that neither series can come close to supporting - but now they have a reputation to uphold and expectations to meet, and they can't. 

so go ahead and read the books if you want, but know that they were better when i read them, and try not to expect them to be what their fans are saying they are. 

*Look What You've Done - Jet

10 comments:

  1. hi!

    i am proud to say that i have not yet read it, and have not followed the hype :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. anonymous hippopotamusSeptember 14, 2011 at 1:52 PM

    i loved the hunger games!!! what are you talking about?! it is nothing like twilight. i mean yes it is definitely a childrens/tween book (although very violent and gruesome) but i don't think the writing is as stupid as twilight. It is definitely a lot better than twilight, granted i've never really read twilight but i did have chapters read to me on youtube and it was BAAAAD!

    hunger games brings out the fifth grader in me...lol like seriously it brings me back to when i was sitting in mrs weltz's class...even 6th grade when i spent the first few weeks just sitting in the library during lunch.

    ReplyDelete
  3. anonymous hippopotamusSeptember 16, 2011 at 12:06 AM

    now that i've made sure you still have a blog with no comment-less posts the reason i came to your blog was to share my new not fave but like song i heard on the radio today... its called tonight tonight by hot chelle rae. i love it..esp. "la la la whatever la la la it doesn't matter." oh and it totally reminded me of you when i heard it. do you have songs by them?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I haven't read them, but I thought that about Twilight - the level of writing was awful, but if you read them,away from the films and the hype, you could sorta appreciate them for what they were. And the story wasn't all that bad, xcept the hype and everything made it seem awful

    ReplyDelete
  5. r... if you do decide to read them, i'd wait for the hype to go down a bit or to go in expecting the worst to counteract it.

    anonymous hippopotamus... i loved the hunger games too, and if you read the sentence in which i compared it to twilight i said that the stories are different but their fanbases and the hype surrounding the books are the same. and it does have some lazy writing in it, you can't deny that. oh, and i like that song, but i don't know anything else by them.

    Hannah... exactly. i think the fans just make the book worse than it is when they are busy saying how awesome it is.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, exactly. It's an easy read. Good for when you're in that watered down distopian mood. I've read it a couple of times.. though I'm pretty sure it was before I got the news that there was a movie deal down the road, not long before, but long enough for it not to be ruined for me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I couldn't get through the first one, the writing was far too horrible and straight forward for me. Like you said, it was always tell, tell, tell, never show. Rather than illustrate Katniss's demeanor and behavior, she merely stated traits and habits.

    I can't wait until people learn to tell the difference between saying "it's the best book/song/movie/etc." and start saying "I loved it."

    ReplyDelete
  8. i can't wait for that either. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, the writing was horrible. But I liked the story. Some people are just more story tellers than writers.

    ReplyDelete
  10. exactly. and i read those books for the story, not the writing.

    ReplyDelete